In a sentence taken from the Oxford Dictionary:
‘The inscription on his tombstone in Groombridge Church, where he is buried alongside his three children, bears his original name and no reference to his nom de plume.’
Is ‘buried’ an adjective, a participial adjective, or a predicate nominative because it follows the copular verb is?
Predicate nominatives complete only linking verbs. The linking verbs include the following: the helping verbs is: am, are, was, were, be, being, and been; the sense verbs: look, taste, smell, feel, and sound; and verbs like become, seem, appear, grow, continue, stay, and turn.
Or is it a past participle because the clause is in the passive voice?
Does “he is buried” mean currently his body lies in a coffin covered with soil, or does it mean he has been buried by someone?
If we say ‘he was buried’ it clearly refers to an event that happened and ended sometime in the past. It might even suggest that the burial ground has since been changed.
Best Answer
There is no ambiguity. In a present-tense narrative, it could be passive "He marries, he dies, he is buried" but in any other context, it is adjectival.
is a copular sentence, where "buried", an adjective, is the complement of the copula "is". You can call it a participial adjective if you like, as it originates as a participle: I'm not sure what the value is in doing so.
Whether or not you call it a predicate nominative depends on what you mean by "nominative", which the writer of the page you linked to didn't specify. Again, I don't know what advantage there is in such a designation.